LETTER- Pinch me when neutrality reigns

School have two choices concerning the distribution of outside literature, says Kent Willis, director of the ACLU of Virginia: prohibit any distribution of material by outside nonprofits or allow all materials to be distributed. [September 28: "Frequent fliers: Albemarle okays religious mail"]

"The real issue is viewpoint discrimination," Willis explains. "Schools have to be very careful students are not coerced and the school does not endorse a viewpoint."

If schools must not be guilty of "viewpoint discrimination" in allowing materials distribution, how about in their curriculum and instruction?

• show as much enthusiasm towards traditional Christian/American values as competing and inferior ones,

• show how Darwinism is just a theory alongside others, like Intelligent Design and Creationism (in which millions of Americans believe),

• re-re-write history books to restore the role Christianity played in building Western Culture and America and restore information on the true American heroes we used to read about, and defend the U. S.'s superiority to other nations, and,

• affirm the ancient American doctrine of rugged individuality, the centrality of the family, community and Church, and how the government must be returned to its original function of preserving order– and little else.

Government schools would thereby soon take themselves out of business, recognizing that the Constitution did not countenance government's forcing its own viewpoint on American children!

And pigs would fly!

Michael H. SmithStanardsville

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3 comments

John October 12th, 2006 | 1:53pm

The opinion of the author might be more persuasive if it wasn't so obviously biased. Just a few things I'd like to point out:

"...as competing and inferior ones." -- What about values superior to the traditional Christian/American variety?

"...Darwinism is just a theory..." -- First off, the theory is called evolution, and it is BOTH a theory (in the scientific sense) and a fact.

"...Intelligent Design and Creationism (in which millions of Americans believe)." -- This is a pretty obvious "argumentum ad populum". Many people, millions even, have believed in a multitude of things over the course of history. As often as not, those things turn out to be wrong.

Sheri October 12th, 2006 | 2:09pm

The writer of the letter is obviously unfamiliar with the principle of separation of church and state. He misses the point that it is the schools' mission to teach and promote theories that are backed by facts, not by popularly held beliefs. Public schools are not the appropriate forum for religious education. Moreover, schools are a place that children go to learn tolerance and acceptance of varied viewpoints. If he is worried that his children will learn to be open-minded and accepting instead of bigoted and homophobic like him, maybe he should home-school them!

Jen October 18th, 2006 | 9:42am

As a high school teacher, I'm kicking myself that I haven't been including these things in my lessons. Who knew that I could have been promoting paganism and denigrating Christianity all this time?! Are there any other teachers out there who would like to share lesson plans? I'll give you my tests on Darwinism if you'll loan me your worksheets on Atheistic Materialism.